MoCo High Schools Rank Lower

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can remember when TJ used to be #1 every year. It seems to lose ground with the passage of each year.

I think it's rated number 1 by Newsweek and Business Insider. I think the methodology for USNWR rankings changed and they do not look at AP scores but just how many AP courses are taken as one of the factors. In addition, post-AP courses, which many TJ students take, are not considered as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair takes moco best students . Moco has most of the highest rated schools , that's why they win its academic EVERY year. Blair places tons more kids on the national physics and math teams than Tj year in and year out.

This is all good and well, but the ranking isn't about which school can provide the best education to the best students. It's about the median outcome.

There is no MOCO equivalent to TJ. Only a small fraction of Blair students are in the magnet.

It's Academic is a joke and the questions are way too easy and the outcome among top schools often come down to who can press the button faster. How did Blair do in the 2 national quizbowl tournaments this year? TJ placed 2nd and 3rd. You are hallucinating about the comments on physics and math team.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair takes moco best students . Moco has most of the highest rated schools , that's why they win its academic EVERY year. Blair places tons more kids on the national physics and math teams than Tj year in and year out.

This is all good and well, but the ranking isn't about which school can provide the best education to the best students. It's about the median outcome.

There is no MOCO equivalent to TJ. Only a small fraction of Blair students are in the magnet.

True. But the absolute smartest kids in the metro area are at Blair year in and year out.

I graduated from Blair but TJ has better equipment/labs, teachers and students. No need to list all the accomplishments.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:And how do they compare to high schools in DC? Virginia? Because that's what is relevant to those of us not doing a national search for high school admissions.

VA schools mentioned on DCUM:

#5 Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
#108 McLean High School
#151 Madison High
#160 George Mason High School
#162 Oakton High
#190 Langley High
#200 Woodson High
#363 Yorktown

DC schools:

#815 Wilson
#88 School Without Walls High School

I'd say since mcps has five HSs in top 150, it's doing much better than the surrounding areas.

VA has talent drain by TJ going on.

Well it's hard to tell how that would play out in the ranking. It's possible that the home HSs still wouldn't break top 150, and you wouldn't have TJ at #5.

It doesn't seem like a great inferential leap to assume that distributing 1800 students who average in the top 2% in SAT scores out to the Virginia high schools would improve their ratings.

The top 2% could be ~10% in Mclean / Madison etc. Maybe, this 10% can bump up their ranking by a good number. My guess is that McLean HS could beat Churchill at least.

Please excuse me; Are you arguing that if the 1# public access high school in FFX got to keep more of it's smart Asians it "might" rank higher than the 2# ranked public access high school in MoCo who also doesn't keep all if it's smartest Asians? If so are you saying that as a point of pride for FFX county or as a slam against it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't read this thoroughly but this might explain some of it:

http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/articles/how-us-news-calculated-the-rankings

Just skimming through the beginning, it looks like the US News methodology is changing to match the state's.

With the state's new model, one of the factors is the gap reduction. Where they look at how the lowest performing groups did and the difference from the top. The smaller the gap, the better the score and ranking.

Skimming through the link above it mentions looking at disadvantaged groups and seeing how they performed against their peers across the state as well.

So what it kind of means is that schools won't just be carried by their top performing students anymore.

TJ has been complained too white and too asian in the last few years. It is still #5. In this sense, it is very hard to justify MoCo HS ranking deterioration due to "gap reduction".

[Anonymous]

I don't know what everyone is blathering about? It is not as if the schools, teachers or the curriculum is wonderful if a school is ranked high - it just means that the schools have high SES students and they can afford to supplement at home.

The point about schools inability to retain its Asian students resulting in lower rating is equally sad. First of all, it means that the schools cannot actually teach non-Asian students to become high achieving. Secondly, it underlines that the Asian students are getting the bulk of their education through self-study, coaching, tutoring, online sources etc., and not the school. In such a case, including Asians actually skews the statistics and incorrectly credits the schools for their performance.

Talk to students in any magnet school in the area - RMIB, Poolesville, Blair or even TJ. They will tell you that for every good teacher, they are saddled with 2-3 average or below average teachers. The teachers know that they can do a lackadaisical job of teaching and the students will still supplement at home and self-teach themselves the material.

The best measure of how good a school is if they can take low performing below grade level students and move them up to be on or above grade level. That is not happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know what everyone is blathering about? It is not as if the schools, teachers or the curriculum is wonderful if a school is ranked high - it just means that the schools have high SES students and they can afford to supplement at home.

The point about schools inability to retain its Asian students resulting in lower rating is equally sad. First of all, it means that the schools cannot actually teach non-Asian students to become high achieving. Secondly, it underlines that the Asian students are getting the bulk of their education through self-study, coaching, tutoring, online sources etc., and not the school. In such a case, including Asians actually skews the statistics and incorrectly credits the schools for their performance.

Talk to students in any magnet school in the area - RMIB, Poolesville, Blair or even TJ. They will tell you that for every good teacher, they are saddled with 2-3 average or below average teachers. The teachers know that they can do a lackadaisical job of teaching and the students will still supplement at home and self-teach themselves the material.

The best measure of how good a school is if they can take low performing below grade level students and move them up to be on or above grade level. That is not happening.

+1
This has been our experience. The students are great, the curriculum is generally great but the teaching quality is uneven especially at the middle school level where the magnet programs often just put a regular teacher into a magnet class without any special training or experience. I am not sure if this is the case at the high school level. I am sure at RMIB they would need special IB training and credentials, not sure what it is like at Blair Magnet

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair takes moco best students . Moco has most of the highest rated schools , that's why they win its academic EVERY year. Blair places tons more kids on the national physics and math teams than Tj year in and year out.

This is all good and well, but the ranking isn't about which school can provide the best education to the best students. It's about the median outcome.

There is no MOCO equivalent to TJ. Only a small fraction of Blair students are in the magnet.

True. But the absolute smartest kids in the metro area are at Blair year in and year out.

I graduated from Blair but TJ has better equipment/labs, teachers and students. No need to list all the accomplishments.

Fellow former Blazer here! I never saw a difference in caliber between Magnet/CAP Blair students and TJ students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair takes moco best students . Moco has most of the highest rated schools , that's why they win its academic EVERY year. Blair places tons more kids on the national physics and math teams than Tj year in and year out.

This is all good and well, but the ranking isn't about which school can provide the best education to the best students. It's about the median outcome.

There is no MOCO equivalent to TJ. Only a small fraction of Blair students are in the magnet.

True. But the absolute smartest kids in the metro area are at Blair year in and year out.

I graduated from Blair but TJ has better equipment/labs, teachers and students. No need to list all the accomplishments.

Fellow former Blazer here! I never saw a difference in caliber between Magnet/CAP Blair students and TJ students.

Perhaps more Indians at TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair takes moco best students . Moco has most of the highest rated schools , that's why they win its academic EVERY year. Blair places tons more kids on the national physics and math teams than Tj year in and year out.

This is all good and well, but the ranking isn't about which school can provide the best education to the best students. It's about the median outcome.

There is no MOCO equivalent to TJ. Only a small fraction of Blair students are in the magnet.

True. But the absolute smartest kids in the metro area are at Blair year in and year out.

I graduated from Blair but TJ has better equipment/labs, teachers and students. No need to list all the accomplishments.

Fellow former Blazer here! I never saw a difference in caliber between Magnet/CAP Blair students and TJ students.

Perhaps more Indians at TJ.

Don't know, but "Indian" isn't a caliber.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe in rankings but the trend is consistent with MCPS's decline. It will continue to go down in coming years.

I agree. Now taking away finals? Piss poor